Short Ford - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition short-ford

Definition :

Short-ford. The ancient custom of the city of Exeter is, when the lord of the fee cannot be answered rent due to him out of his tenement, and no distress can be levied for the same, he is to come to the tenement, and there take a stone, or some other dead thing of the said tenement, and bring it before the mayor and bailiffs; and this he must do seven quarter-days successively; and if, on the seventh quarter-day, the lord is not satisfied his rent and arrears then the tenement shall be adjudged to the lord to hold the same a year and a day; and forthwith proclamation is to be made in the Court, that if any man claim any title to the tenement, he must appear within the year and a day next following, and satisfy the lord of the said rent and arrears. But if no appearance be made, and the rent not paid, the lord comes again to the Court and prays that according to the custom the tenement be adjudged to him in his demesne as of fee, which is done, and the lord from thenceforth has it to him and his heirs. This custom is called short-ford; being as much as, in French, to foreclose, Izack's Antiq. Exet. 48. See Cowel.

A like custom in London by the ancient statute of Gavelet, attributed to 10 Edw. 2, is called forschot or forschoke